MBA Letters of Recommendation

A comprehensive recommendation letter is an excellent asset for your MBA application, but one that needs extra attention and effort. An effective letter provides plenty of information that may not be found in your other application documents.

At its most basic level, a well-structured letter of recommendation should give business schools an overview about your academic awards, professional achievements, character references and personal details. This is your chance to stand out among the crowd of applicants vying for that single seat inside the MBA classroom.

GUIDELINES

A good recommendation letter boosts your chances of getting into an MBA program. On the other hand, a poorly written one may cause your application to be rejected. For starters, here are some basic guidelines that you must keep in mind when asking someone to write your letter of approval.

Do’s

Being courteous is the primary thing to remember when asking for a letter of recommendation. Remember that your peers aren’t obligated to produce this document. To ensure your letter gets materialized, and with good quality at that, follow these simple rules.

• Request the letter at least three months before the deadline for submission of documents.
• Ask someone who knows you well to make a recommendation.
• Get recommendations from colleagues who are familiar with your work ethic.
• Choose someone who has good writing skills, as much as possible.
• Mention that you need the letter for your MBA application.
• Give them an overview on how you plan to approach your application.
• Solicit for the recommendation in person, instead of asking by phone or email.
• Keep copies of the letter because you may need them again in the future.
• Gather as much recommendation letters as you can so you have more options to choose from.
• Send a thank you note afterwards, or treat them for lunch if you prefer.

Don’ts

Writing a letter of recommendation isn’t easy, especially if you really care about the future of the person who requested it. Remember that the people you ask for this favor are also professionals who have their own daily chores and duties to deal with. Don’t add to their already stressful day by avoiding the following mistakes.

• Request the letter at the very last minute.
• Ask them to lie and include dishonest recognitions to make your letter look more impressive.
• Forge signatures.
• Base your selection solely on your colleague’s title.
• Send all your recommendation letters, especially if many of them were poorly written.

CONTENT

Consider yourself lucky if you manage to receive more letters than what you aimed for. Remember that quality trumps quantity. Sending a bunch of recommendations won’t do you any good if they are poorly written or contain very little information about you. Here are some factors to consider when choosing which endorsements to include in your application.

Strengths and Weaknesses

An effective letter of recommendation emphasizes your strengths. This includes your skills, abilities, certificates and awards. Don’t be too modest, but don’t exaggerate either. Never fabricate any information because business schools will eventually find out the truth. However, if you were the head of your class or a top performer at work, you have the right to add those merits to your letter.

Detail

The devil is in the details of the recommendation letter. Don’t make the mistake of consulting people in high-ranking positions without considering whether they know enough relevant information about you or not. Although the word of a CEO has more weight than that of a mid-level employee, you want someone who knows how you work in a professional environment.

Insight

A letter of recommendation should provide an objective insight into your abilities and traits as a professional. Although the document comes from a third party, it must contain specific examples that justify why you deserve an MBA degree.

Professional

Your letters may come from anyone, but make sure it is well-written, concise, honest and realistic. Your friends may think you are the greatest worker in the world, but that would be useless if they address you in the letter as “bro,” or “dude.” Besides your skills and strengths, a robust letter should also contain examples of your dependability, consistency and good character.

Honest

If you can’t get a good recommendation letter, the last thing you want to do is forge one. Talk to your colleague about the possibility of writing in tandem. The reality is that there are plenty of students who write their own recommendations and just ask their colleagues to sign it for them.

Technically, this isn’t cheating because some professionals are simply too busy with their daily schedule to deal with an extra chore like writing a letter of recommendation. Instead, they let the applicant write the letter and agree to sign it afterwards.

If your qualifications are as impressive as the others, your recommendation letter might just be the deciding factor whether your MBA application gets accepted or rejected.